Help make cranes for pediatric cancer centers

Help a young boy's dream come true by folding origami cranes for The National Crane Project from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Cops 'n' Kids Reading Room in Bethlehem.

Learn to fold the cranes with provided paper and help bring hope and joy to children with cancer. The project was started by David Heard, a 10-year-old Easton boy with a rare form of cancer, who wanted to donate a set of 1,000 paper cranes to every pediatric cancer center in the country as a symbol of hope. Although David died in 2011, the project continues as volunteers fold the cranes with the goal of making 220,000 of the cranes.

David got the idea to fold paper cranes after seeing a student performance of the play "A Thousand Cranes" at Lafayette College, which is based on the true story of 12-year-old girl in Japan, who developed leukemia after the atomic bombing of her hometown of Hiroshima during World War II.

According to Japanese legend, anyone who folds 1,000 origami cranes will get one wish. Hoping to regain her health, she starts folding cranes but dies before making a full set.

Play director Mary Jo Lodge and the Lafayette students gave David the 1,000 paper cranes from the play and he donated them to the pediatric cancer ward of Lehigh Valley Hospital-Muhlenberg.

In 2008, David was diagnosed with stage IV neuroblastoma, a rare and often deadly cancer of the nervous system that strikes about 750 children a year. He underwent treatment at LVH, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia and Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York City. David originally wanted to give a set of cranes to each of the five hospitals where he's been treated but expanded his goal. When a story about David and his goal ran in the Morning Call, cranes started pouring in from all over the country.

When David died, more than 70,000 cranes had been made and since then the project has passed the halfway point.

His story has been preserved in "Cranes of Hope," a film by Lafayette College professor Nandini Sikand.

After the program, kids can choose up to five books to take home. The reading room is at 511 E. Third St. in Bethlehem. Info: 610-861-5526, http://www.copsnkidslv.org.